STACK #145 Nov 2016

visit stack.net.au

Coming Up

PiNK FLOYD - the Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals Out November 11 via Sony.

Michael Dwyer ponders Sony's reissuing of Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn ('67) , A Saucerful of Secrets ('68) , Atom Heart Mother ('70) , Meddle ('71) , Obscured By Clouds ('72) , TheWall ('79) , and The Division Bell ('94) on vinyl. Words Michael Dwyer PINK FLOYD

COLD CHISEL - COLD CHISEL, BREAKFAST AT SWEETHEARTS, EAST, CIRCUS ANIMALS, TWENTIETH CENTURY Out now via Universal.

mind-blowing artwork of Storm Thorgeson and Hipgnosis, the many phases of their epic British legend comprise the most intriguing marriage of sound and vision in the history of... "Shh, Grandpa, I'm trying to listen to Funky Dung ." Hang on princess, l'm going somewhere with this. The chronology of the Pink Floyd Records vinyl series is a little weird, but maybe no more so than in the random collision of avenues on any of the early albums. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets are ripe for discovery at any time, and from moment to moment. Barrett's psychedelic, music hall bikes and unicorns run rings around free-jazz, pastoral loveliness, musique concrete experimentation and much more; always, always in the service of an inward journey deep into the unknown. The most recent series to hit shelves is no less essential. The early '70s trilogy of Atom Heart Mother , Meddle and the film soundtrack Obscured By Clouds are portals to soccer crowd ambience, cut with soft-shoe shuffle and slow blues, and accompanied by howling dog. Oh, and songs. Songs like you won't believe, princess.

I t's a rainy Saturday afternoon in the future. An old man is in his basement, tinkering with something he dragged out of a bombed-out house up the street. "What's that Grandpa?" the little girl asks as she creaks down the stairs. He sits her down in a strategically positioned armchair, turns up the volume on the amplifier. He lowers the needle into the black plastic groove and mutters something about a special machine for listening to Pink Floyd. As the shimmering hum of Father's Shout rises to a fanfare of hunting horns, he hands her the album cover. The hyper-real photo of a cow is a hundred times bigger than any thumbnail she's ever seen. She opens it like a storybook, sinks into the ominous, grainy pastoral vista as the sound of a motorcycle splits the room from one speaker to the other. " Atom Heart Mother ," she whispers. The violins sob. The choir rises to meet the birdsong. She's gone, out of her tiny mind and away. And Dave Gilmour hasn't even played his first stinging guitar solo yet. She could have started pretty much anywhere in her appreciation of the almost-lost art of listening

CROWDED HOUSE - Crowded house, Woodface, afterglow, together alone, temple of low men, intriguer Out November 4 via Universal.

– as long as it was a Pink Floyd record. For nearly as long as the rock album has existed as a concept, this morphing psychedelic institution from London has been the ultimate immersion experience. All of which is to say that yes, dammit, yet another reissue program – this time on 180-gram vinyl, remastered by long-suffering producer/engineer James Guthrie and cohorts – is an essential service to the culture and future wellbeing of human civilisation. From the extreme stereoscopic head-trip of their 1967 debut with Syd Barrett, to the consistently

"What about this one with the brick wall? And this one with the big tin heads in the field?" Well, some are more of an acquired taste. "Movies for the ears," as producer Bob Ezrin liked to call 'em. Maybe it's the band's infamous ego wars that have fast-tracked the release of Roger Waters' magnum opus, The Wall , and Dave Gilmour's double-LP epic of '94, The Division Bell . PFRLP11 and PFRLP14, according to the new serial numbers… "Uh, Grandpa? You're getting weird." Sorry honey. Hey. Do you want to hear one about Animals ? (Sony)

NOVEMBER 2016

74

jbhifi.com.au